Dan Campbell is hopeful that Brian Branch will be able to create even more plays at the safety position.
As the Detroit Lions inch closer to the regular season, it becomes clearer and clearer that they project defensive back Brian Branch in an increasingly large safety role. Branch played almost exclusively in the nickel last year, and even though coach Dan Campbell knows the 2023 second-round pick thrives at that position, he thinks Branch may be able to do the team even more good with an increased usage at safety.
“You can make a lot of plays at the nickel and produce in this defense,” Campbell said, “but safety is, I mean you’re talking about—you got a lot of freedom within the structure, within the system to really—I mean you talk about making plays, you can make some plays there.”
Branch didn’t have much of a problem making plays last year. He produced three interceptions, 13 passes defended, seven tackles for loss, and a forced fumble in 15 games. Quite simply, he was one of the most disruptive defensive backs in football .
However, limited to the nickel role meant that he wasn’t able to stay on the field against every opponent. For a run-heavy team like the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens , Branch’s usage came way down—playing just 50% of the defensive snaps in Baltimore and 41% in the NFC Championship game.
Still, it’s unclear how big this role change will be for Branch. With an offseason surgery limiting his participation in the first week of training camp, we’ve only seen Branch in walkthroughs, where he has exclusively played at safety. Will that change once he ramps up his participation? It’s hard to know, but Campbell suggested they are going to play around with secondary combinations.
“We just feel like Branch, (safety) can suit him well and give him a chance to see where he can go with it,” Campbell said. “But you know, we talked about it before. That’s what this is. We have options now and we got some guys that we think pretty highly of in the secondary room and it’s all about finding the best combination of who’s certainly outside, nickel, safety, and so we’re just going to keep moving them and mixing them in.”